Wood surfacing machine



Oct. 12, 1954 J. 5. GIFFORD ET AL 2,691,394

woon suRFAbING MACHINE Filed Feb. 26, 1953 BELL 58 59 P 20 O 0 55 O O I43 6 ,2 6o I l7 3 8 8 lo .9 5 Ba FL] 48 1a 38 3/ 4-7 37 Na F: l;1 -45 [AIN VEIVTORS JAMES S. GIFFORD HERBERT C. HANSELL Patented Oct. 12, 1954til/D SURFACIN G MACHINE James S. Gifford and Herbert G. Hansell, New

Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, assignors to Webb-Gifford Ltd.,New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada Application February 26, 1953,Serial No. 339,134

1 Claim. 1

Our invention relates to improvements in wood surfacing machines whichare particularly adapted for use in scribing parallel grooves on theexposure surface of shingles.

The grooving of the exposure surface of a shingle has always presentedserious problems which hitherto have never been entirely overcome andone particular difficulty has been to hold the thin tip of the shinglefirmly under or upon a plane surface to avoid one or more of the cutterknives hitting the tip or leading edge at some portion of its length andpartially or wholly destroying the shingle. Another difficulty was to sohold said tip that every groove cutting tooth of the knife wouldpenetrate the shingle to its predetermined depth at the same time.

Thepresent invention contemplates means for overcoming the above nameddifficulties and the objects are to provide means whereby the shinglewill be clamped at the tip and at a point beyond the cutter head beforethe grooving process commences and also to provide means whereby theleading end or tip of the shingle will be raised above the cutting lineof the cutter head until said shingle reaches the point at which thegrooving was designed to' start. A further object is to provide a devicewhereby the shingle or other work when in engagement with the cutterhead, is held in a perfectly horizontal straight line extending parallelto said cutter head, so that the upper surfaces of the ribs formedincidentally to the grooving process will lie in a true plane. A stillfurther object is to provide means whereby the butt or thick end of theshingle will be held down tight to the bed of the machine as the end ofa cut takes place.

Referring to the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the invention taken on theline l-l of Figure 2.

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 22 of Figure1.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 are diagrammatic views showing the progression of ashingle across the cutter head.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in each figure.

The numeral 1 indicates a frame having side members 2 and a transversemember 3. The side members 2 are preferably of channel section havingupper flanges 5 to support horizontal longitudinally extending sideplates 8. The side plates 6 are connected together at predeterminedintervals of their length by transversely extending rails 8, which inturn support a bed 9 and a pair of spaced rails Ill. The rails H) serveas side members for the bed and are provided with an upstanding rib I2.The rails Ill are downwardly turned as at [5 at each end, the purpose ofwhich will hereinafter appear.

Intermediate the length of the bed 9 is a heavy flap ll of the sameWidth as the bed and which is hingedly mounted at one end upon atransverse shaft i8. The flap. ll is bevelled on its underside as at atits free end and a transverse gap 22 is defined between said free endand the adjacent length of bed Q.

Mounted upon a driven shaft 25 in immovably supported bearings 26carried by the side members 2 is a cutter head 21 which is driventhrough a pulley 29 by a drive belt 30. The mounting of the shaft 25 andthe cutter head 21 is such that each of the knives 3| will project abovethe upper surface of the bed to the maximum depth of the desiredsurfacing cut and when the knives are provided with serrated orundulating cutting projections, which are commonly used in groovingshingles, the projections, not shown, will extend above the bed level tocut the desired grooves in the shingles fed along the bed. A transverseshaft 33 is mounted below the shaft 25 and is fitted with a pair ofsprockets 34 through which it is driven and is also fitted with acentral cam 35. A pair of idler shafts 3T are journalled at oppositeends of the frame, one only being shown. These shafts are fitted withpairs of sprockets 38 and one of said shafts is driven from anappropriate source of power. A pair of chains 40 extend around thesprockets 34 and 38. These chains are trained lengthwise along the framesubstantially at the level of the bed 9 and are transversely connectedby flights 42, each having a bevelled top wall 33. The forward edge ofeach flight is adapted to engage a shingle above the depth of the cut ofthe cutter head 2'! to drive said shingle along the bed and said flightsare adapted to pass freely over the knives 3| of the cutter head whencutting at maximum depth. The flights are adapted to be drawn forwardlyupon the rails Ill and since the ends 85 of said rails are downwardlyturned towards the pitch line of the sprockets 38, said flights will beheld down in firm contact with said rails by the pull of the chains 40irrespective of the normal downward thrust upon said flights as theypass under any press rolls.

A vertical guide is mounted upon the transverse member 3 in which aplunger 46 is slidably mounted. This plunger is provided at its upperend with an adjustable head 41 which is adapted to engage the undersideof a rib 48 extending transversely of the flap H. A lever structure 5Dis swingingly mounted from a transverse shaft 5! and is provided with aseat 52 intermediate its length and a roller 53 at its free end. Theseat 52 engages the lower end of the plunger 46 and the roller 53 ridesupon the periphery of the cam 35.

Mounted on the side plates 6 are elongated cover plates 55 which extendinwardly over the chains 40 and over the ends of the flights 4.2connected to said chains. On the cover plates 55 pairs of verticalbrackets 51 and 58 are secured between which pairs of cranks 59 arerockingly mounted and each pair of cranks non-rotatably supports a.press roll shaft 80 upon which a heavy press roll 62 is freelyjournalled. In order that one roller supported from the brackets 51 andone roller supported from the brackets 58 should be disposed as closelyas possible to the end edges of the gap 22, the press rolls hung fromthe brackets 51 are disposed forwardly of the pivotal point of theircranks and the press rolls hung from the brackets 58 are disposedrearwardly of the pivotal point of their cranks. The right hand pressroll supported from the brackets 58 is adapted to bear upon the bed 9immediately beyond the gap 22 and to be in contact with the uppersurface of a shingle before said shingle is engaged by any of the knivesof the cutter head.

In operation, the cutter head which is preferably driven from a separatesource of power from that driving the chains 40 and the parts driventhereby, is set in motion and the shafts 31 are also set in motion.Shingles are placed one by one onto the bed 9 in front of a flight 42 sothat each shingle is moved to the left, see Figure 1, along the bed andonto the flap. The cam position as shown in Figure 1 shows the flap justprior to it being lowered to horizontal position following the movementof a shingle tip beyond the gap and beyond the leading press roll of thebracket 58. The cam position as in Figure 3, shows the tip of theshingle abutting the press roll to the left of the gap slightly abovethe bed level and the flap about to drop to horizontal or bed level. Bythe time that the flap reaches bed level the shingle at a predetermineddistance from its tip will be pressed into contact with the cutter headas shown in Figure 4 and grooving will continue to the butt end of saidshingle. During this grooving movement the shingle will be pressed downtightly along both edges of the gap ensuring clean cut straight groovesand an exceedingly smooth finish to the weather face of said shingle. Assoon as the butt of the shingle has passed the gap, the cam will causethe flap to rise again to carry the tip of the next following shinglebeyond the axis of the cutter head and lower it into contact with theknives when it reaches its proper position for the grooving to commence.It will be appreciated that the weight of the press roll upon a shinglewhen said shingle is being projected beyond the inclined free edge ofthe flap will straighten out any natural deviation of the shingle tipfrom a straight line and ensure that it is properly engaged anddepressed down to the bed beyond the gap 22, so that there can be notendency of any part of the tip to dip into the gap or for the knives tomake an irregular penetration into the shingle at the commencement ofthe grooving out.

What we claim as our invention is:

A 'wood working machine comprising a bed, means for moving work piecesprogressively along the bed to be surfaced on their underside, said bedhaving a hinged flap normally lying in the plane of the bed, part ofsaid bed and the free edge of the flap defining a gap, a rotary cutterhead having knives and being mounted to project their cutting edgesupwardly through the gap, a cam operated in timed relation with the workpiece moving means for raising and lowering the flap above anddownwardly to the plane of the bed, and means for pressing the leadingedge of the work piece downwardly onto the bed immediately following itsprojection beyond the gap.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 312,444 Disston Feb. 1'7, 1885 1,634,789 Melby July 5, 19271,944,631 Bergstrom Jan. 23, 1934 2,440,994 Wilde May 4, 194.8 2,574,912Dennison 'Nov. 13, 1951

